Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles

Hardcover, 324 pages
Published April 13th, 2010
Walker Books for Young Readers
Perfect Chemistry #2
Source: Library

When Carlos Fuentes returns to America after living in Mexico for a year, he doesn’t want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him at a high school in Colorado . Carlos likes living his life on the edge and wants to carve his own path—just like Alex did. Then he meets Kiara Westford. She doesn’t talk much and is completely intimidated by Carlos’ wild ways. As they get to know one another, Carlos assumes Kiara thinks she’s too good for him, and refuses to admit that she might be getting to him. But he soon realizes that being himself is exactly what Kiara needs right now.

*MY THOUGHTS*
Towards the beginning all I was thinking about was the fact that Alex wasn’t this bad. But he actually was. I guess I was remembering him as the Alex at the end of the story and not the “whole picture” of Alex. But anyways, this story is about Carlos his younger brother. He was the regular hard a*s who didn’t care about anything but himself. Even though he was so rude and egotistic, I still loved his character. In her books, Elkeles uses the POV of both the main characters so that we can get into both their minds and see their feelings for each other start to develop. Because of this, it made it so easy to fall into their world. I really felt like I was watching a movie rather than reading a book. I remember I said the same thing about Perfect Chemistry. But I must admit, I did not like Carlos at first. My guess, I was just anticipating the romance, because as soon as it hit, I found myself just like Kiara, falling for him. My favorite part of the story is actually the part that is pictured on the cover of the book. I read it and my eyes got all watery. Let’s just say I liked the cover at first, but after reading that part, I LOVED it even more. I would love nothing more than to actually watch this as a movie. (If certain books can be made into movies, I don’t see why this one can’t… I’m just saying…) As far as the story line, I love how it just flowed and how well the other characters connected to the main characters. (I loved Brandon lol) And the ending was EPIC. I must admit, I was nervous even though I could tell how it would end. The story was a great edition to the triliogy, but I must say I still loved the first one more. (And Alex too!) But don’t get it confused, I did fall for Carlos. Can’t wait to see how Luis will turn out when his story comes out on AUGUST 16TH!!!!!